I am a Platinum member. I brought 2 new guests with me on this my 5th cruise with RC. I raved to them about my previous cruises, the beautiful fruit sculptures in and the midnight buffets in the Windjammer and the spectacular food in the Main Dining room. I was extremely disappointed to learn that the decorative fruit (even for just the first or second day Windjammer lunch) had been discontinued, as well as the midnight buffet, in an effort to save money. I felt that the quality of the food in the Minstrel Dining room was not as good in the past. Again, I was disappointed to learn that there was no lobster, included or to be purchased, on board. (We were offered a 30% discount on Filet Mignon in it's place.) It gave me cause to wonder if the quality of food had been diminished in an effort to get people to eat in the speciality restaurants?

I guess I misunderstood the concept of "My Time Dining". I thought that we could go to dinner whatever time we wanted but was a bit taken aback when we showed up the first night for dinner at 8:30 and the entirety of my party was, the only word fitting is SCOLDED, for not making a reservation. I made sure the next day to pick a time for every other dinner. Something else that puzzled me greatly was when I requested Tito's Vodka at the bar I was told that they didn't have any for the last 2 cruises, however I found it FOR PURCHASE in the gift shop! Also, on my account I was charged $11 for 2 bottles of Evian I did not drink. I went down to the customer service desk and told them that I now had 4 bottles in my room and they said they would note it and have the mini-bar attendant remove the charge from my account. That never happened. I do have a photo of the 4 bottles in my room.

One of the most disappointing things that happened was that we missed our excursion in Cozumel due to "ship time." I should have remembered if from prior cruises, but I did not. I, personally, did not see any signs on the ship regarding this, but members of my party said they saw them upon returning from the port. There are no clocks in the rooms (which would certainly help) and most people solely rely on mobile phones for time. We were among several groups of people who missed their excursion and has to rebook something else. During dinner the night before the Maitre D as well as our head and assistant waiter gave us safety tips for the next day, but none mentioned the very important "ship time". I also have the Compass from the prior day, and day of, and NEITHER of them say anything about "Ship Time" under "Important Information for the Day." Tremendously disappointing as the excursion we had to rebook was not what we had intended. I am very happy, however, to state that the service of staff on all parts of the ship remained top notch and with that we were all extremely happy with them.